ARENA of young arts
ARENA ... of the young arts is an international theater festival with a focus on performance , dance and body theater . The festival, organized by students from Friedrich-Alexander University , takes place annually in summer in Erlangen over a period of four days.
profile
During the festival every year for four days the most diverse types of performance , as well as dance and body theater are presented. As a rule, individual artists and groups are invited. The aim is to present contemporary, interdisciplinary, multimedia and experimental productions that have developed independently of the institutionalized theater system and are realized in unconventional venues.
The aim of the organizers is to broaden the perspective of the international independent theater scene and to promote the exchange between artists, scientists, representatives of media and theater practice and the audience. A jury of experts supervised staging discussions, panel discussions, lectures and workshops led by artists.
Three prizes will be awarded each time, including an audience award. The festival staff work on a voluntary basis, the artists perform without a fee and receive the usual travel expenses if necessary.
history
After the 40th International Student Theater Week in 1989, Erlangen students of theater studies founded the ARENA e. V. In 1991 the first festival organized by the association took place, at which the theater director Jan Bosse was a member of the organization team. In cooperation with the Centro Drammàtico Elvira, a group that had performed the previous year, a co-production took place for the first time in 1992. Since then, co-productions have been an integral part of the festival.
A festival newspaper established in 1995 - "ARENA Spots" - reports daily in German and English on the latest events of the festival. The sheet also contains reviews of the individual performances and interviews with artists, jury and team members. Also since 1995, there are co-productions with external theaters. An international jury made up of five representatives from theater and media practice has judged all plays since 1998, awards the best play at the festival and, since 1993, the audience award.
The TalkArts production talks were established in 2001 and in 2003 the independent film team “ARENA Zoom”, which documented the festival until 2011.
In 2005 the International Week of Young Theater was renamed ARENA ... of the young arts / ARENA ... of the young arts .
The festival planned for the 30th anniversary in 2020 had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic .
Events
- 1990 - On January 11th, the association ARENA Internationaler Theaterstudenten e. V. (AIT) founded. The current director of the puppet theater festival Bodo Birk and the now renowned director Jan Bosse are part of the founding team.
- 1991 - The first festival with 10 groups from 9 different countries is set up under the name “International Week of Young Student Theater”.
- 1992 - The first co-production is realized with the Centro Dramatico Elvira from Spain. For the first time, the festival has a motto that is very open and awards a prize. The focus will be expanded from pure student theater to the entire independent scene, and accordingly the festival will be renamed “International Week of Young Theater”.
- 1993 - The BeckettSpiel production is presented together with the Erlangen Theater.
- 1994 - The association receives the city of Erlangen's cultural sponsorship award . The festival takes place on a smaller scale within the twelfth Bavarian Theater Days.
- 1995 - The co-production is developed together with the Living Theater from New York. The festival newspaper Spots is founded, produced by ARENA sympathizers and delivered as a breakfast supplement.
- 1996 - The association fears that the festival can no longer be held in the future for financial reasons. With the 'ARENA am Boden' campaign, the team members try to collect donations by cleaning shoes, based on the slogan “This is where intellectuals jerk off”.
- 1997 - A sound-body performance takes place in a beer cellar in the Erlangen Burgberg.
- 1998 - At the award ceremony, the team gets support from an international team of six jurors, including Bodo Birk.
- 1999 - Motto of the festival: “Do not judge anything that you have not seen!” 14 performances are shown.
- 2000 - Motto of the festival: "Live wild and dangerous". A completely renewed team is designing the tenth anniversary festival.
- 2001 - The new talkArt series of events offers the opportunity to enter into a dialogue with the artists immediately after the performances.
- 2002 - This year's co-production is with Beautiful Monster, a group from Australia.
- 2003 - Motto of the festival “Theatersinn”. The festival is all about the senses as well as the sensory perceptions and makes theater tangible with the "theater sense". The 2001 co-production 'Sine Loco' is a guest at the Lower Austrian Danube Festival in Korneuburg and wins the award for the most innovative production at the Golden Mask Festival.
- 2004 - Motto of the festival: "LebensART-Lifestyle".
- 2005 - Motto of the festival “Ver -rückt”. The festival gets a new name and is now called: ARENA ... of the young arts .
- 2006 - Motto of the festival “Offside”. Twelve groups from the Czech Republic, Israel, England and other countries are guests, including the Wired Aerial Theater with a bungee, rope and air acrobatics.
- 2007 - Motto of the festival "SinnFlut / SenseabundanceFreiraum / Open Space". The vast amount of sensory impressions we are exposed to on a daily basis are discussed.
- 2008 - Motto of the festival "Freiraum / Open Space". The festival will open with the play 'Los quatro Cubos' by the Argentinian group 'Compania Buster Keaton', where the author will be present.
- 2009 - Motto of the festival "Idylle am Abgrund". The festival will open with two parallel performances, the first of which will be an opera.
- 2010 - Motto of the festival: "Future on bread". On the occasion of the 20th anniversary, the association is issuing an anniversary publication.
- 2011 - Motto of the festival: "... look away! / ... look away!" In 13 productions it was about breaking through the usual perception and taking on new perspectives.
- 2012 - Motto of the festival: "Apocalypse - Alles muss raus / Apocalypse - It's all for sale". Stagings were shown that dealt with different ideas about an apocalypse , such as: "Nature defends itself against the human parasite" or "The financial markets are collapsing.
- 2013 - Motto of the festival: "limitless / no limit". From June 25th to 30th the problem of borders was examined and illuminated in every form. It was about the beginning and the end, borders as opportunities, the question of people's dependence on boundaries and boundaries.
- 2014 - Motto of the festival: “Mensch ... where are you? / Man ... where are you?”. From July 1st to 7th, 14 performances attempted to track down the human being in all the facets of his being. What makes a person? Where is man in today's world?
- 2015 - Motto of the festival: "25 years of artistic fertilization / 25 years of artistic promotion". ARENA celebrates its 25th anniversary.
- 2016 - Motto of the festival: "Who is afraid of ...? / Who's afraid of ...?" ARENA deals with the topic of fear with a social focus.
- 2017 - Motto of the festival: "Prisma - changing perspectives / Prism - shifting perspectives"
- 2018 - Motto of the festival: "404 - Not found"
- 2019 - Motto of the festival: "Guilt & Stage"
- 2020 - Motto of the festival: "No Drama_". ARENA celebrates from 24.-28. June 2020 its 30th anniversary. Due to COVID-19 , the festival had to be canceled for the first time in its history.
Prizes and awards
- 1994 Culture Prize of the City of Erlangen